Tag: black+white magazine

The latest edition of Portrait magazine, published by the National Portrait Gallery, features an article on black+white magazine. Article author and Assistant Curator of the Gallery, Penny Grist, recalls the impact the magazine had on her as a student. In the article she talks to some of the magazine’s contributing photographers, and the celebrities they shot. Given the magazine was such a large part of my life for so many years, I felt it would be remiss of me not to mention the article. Although black+white is no longer with us, Grist’s article proves it’s not forgotten. The printed copies may be becoming rarer, but the portraits within its pages live on as a record of the spirit and times of the mid-90s and early noughties.

Last week I was interviewed by the delightful Penny Grist, Assistant Curator at the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, for a story she’s writing on the impact of black+white magazine on Australian art, culture and portraiture. It was heartening to hear that the artistic and documentary value of some of the images I commissioned during my long tenure as Editor continue to be recognised. When you think about it, it’s obvious that a photograph shot by a professional photographer with the intention to reveal something about their subject will live on. Unlike the tsunami of selfies that swamp our retinas, tell us little, and are destined to be ‘deleted’ mere moments after they’re taken. Enough said! I’ll post a link to the article in Portrait as soon as it’s available. I’m sure it’ll be a most interesting read. In the meantime, here’s one of my favourite black+white covers: Issue # 11 shot by Albert Watson.